Pablo Picasso’s love and fascination for animals defined his personal life and spurred his creative practices. Since childhood, animals formed Picasso’s vision of the world: his father was a breeder of pigeons and taught him how to paint them. His appreciation for animals continued into later life, when he shared his studio with dogs, goats, cats and birds (including an owl he tamed to sit on his finger). He even named his fourth child ‘Paloma’- the Spanish word for dove.
'Pablo loved to surround himself with birds and animals. In general they were exempt from the suspicion with which he regarded his other friends.' —Françoise Gilot
Picasso holding an owl in his workshop in Antibes, 1946. Image: © Michel Sima / Bridgeman Images Using the simplest form and cleanest line, Picasso captured the unique subtleties of each and every beast he drew, most famously in his totemic grisaille canvas Guernica, 1937. Picasso’s bull and wounded horse became the voice of a generation – the most powerful anti-war painting of the twentieth century. Guernica was not, however, the first significant animal study by the artist. In 1936, Picasso’s publisher and dealer, Ambrose Vollard commissioned a suite of etchings to illustrate a selection of texts from the renowned encyclopaedic publication Histoire Naturelle (published in 44 volumes between 1749-1788), written by Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788). Historie Naturelle classified different animal species based on patterns and observations and contributed to novel ideas about the distribution of plants and animals around the globe.
Using a range of intaglio techniques that included etching, drypoint, and lift-ground aquatint - a process that allowed for subtle gradations of tone - Picasso created his own menagerie of thirty-one animals, insects and birds, treating each one with as much affection as if they were his own pets. Eleanor Garvey, author of The Artist and Book praised the series saying: ‘It appears that the artist executed them rapidly, and with the utmost freedom.” She explained how the master printer Roger Lacourière had introduced Picasso to the lift-ground or sugar aquatint process, which, “allowed a variety of tones and textures within a limited range. The spontaneity of the plates is attested by the freehand margins, the rapidly drawn line, and the use of fingerprints for textural variety.’
Picasso’s illustrations bring Leclerc’s book to life: a horse swishes it’s tail as it shy’s to the side; an ostrich extends it’s stride to race across the page; and the cockerel puffs his feathers and chest preparing for a fight. From the quietly contemplative cat to the hen fussing about her chicks, Picasso’s passion for all things big and small shines through.
Picasso with his goat Esmerelda and boxer Jan, La Californie, Cannes, 1956. Photo Edward Quinn © edwardquinn.com 'ah if the bird made of garlands woven from the hours asleep in the bronze spider’s belly could make its star fritters up in the air of the sea of numbers at the angry blows of the billy goats dressed in feathers and sign on the rose telegraph wire of the eye of the egg’s blue of the scarf hanging from the fiery nail planted exactly in the middle of the forehead between the horn of the toto’s head wheat silence.'1
1 A surrealist poem written by Picasso when working on his etchings for Buffon
Literature
Georges Bloch 328-358
Brigitte Baer 575-605
Patrick Cramer books 37Catalogue Essay
Including Le Cheval (The Horse); L'Âne (The Donkey); Le Taureau (The Bull); Le Toro Espagnol (The Spanish Bull); Le Bellier (The Ram); Le Chat (The Cat); Le Chien (The Dog); La Chèvre (The Goat); La Biche (The Doe); Le Loup (The Wolf); La Lione (The Lion); La Singe (The Baboon); L'Aigle Blanc (The White Eagle); Le Vautour (The Vulture); L'Épervier (The Sparrow Hawk); L'Autruche (The Ostrich); Le Coq (The Cock); La Mère Poule (The Mother Hen); Le Dindon (The Turkey); Le Pigeon (The Pigeon); Le Chardonneret (The Gold Finch); L'Abeille (The Bee); Le Papillon (The Butterfly); La Guèpe (The Wasp); La Langouste (The Langoustine); L'Araignée (The Spider); La Libellule (The Dragonfly); Le Lézard (The Lizard): Le Crapaud (The Toad); Les Grenouilles (The Frogs); and La Sauterelle (The Grasshopper)
Artist Biography
Pablo Picasso
Spanish • 1881 - 1973
One of the most dominant and influential artists of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso was a master of endless reinvention. While significantly contributing to the movements of Surrealism, Neoclassicism and Expressionism, he is best known for pioneering the groundbreaking movement of Cubism alongside fellow artist Georges Braque in the 1910s. In his practice, he drew on African and Iberian visual culture as well as the developments in the fast-changing world around him.
Throughout his long and prolific career, the Spanish-born artist consistently pushed the boundaries of art to new extremes. Picasso's oeuvre is famously characterized by a radical diversity of styles, ranging from his early forays in Cubism to his Classical Period and his later more gestural expressionist work, and a diverse array of media including printmaking, drawing, ceramics and sculpture as well as theater sets and costumes designs.
5
Eaux-fortes originale pour des textes de Buffon (Histoire naturelle) [Original Etchings for Texts by Buffon (Natural History )] (Bl. 328-358, Ba. 575-605, C. 37)
1936/42
The complete artist's book including 31 etching and aquatints with drypoint, on Japan Imperial paper, with additional deluxe suite of 32 etching and aquatints including La Puce (The Flea) on Chine paper, with full margins, with title page, text in French, and justification, the sheets bound in later brown Morocco-covered bevelled boards with gilt lettering on the spine, and gilt edges, with matching paper-covered slipcase.
book 38 x 29 x 4.5 cm (14 7/8 x 11 3/8 x 1 3/4 in.)
slipcase 39 x 31 x 6 cm (15 3/8 x 12 1/4 x 2 3/8 in.)
Stamp-numbered '14' in black ink on the justification, one of 30 deluxe books including the additional suite, from the total edition of 226, published by Martin Fabiani, Paris.
Estimate
£25,000 - 35,000 ‡♠
Sold for £60,480
Rebecca Tooby-Desmond
Specialist, Head of Sale, Editions
T +44 207 318 4079
M +44 7502 417366
rtooby-desmond@phillips.com
Robert Kennan
Head of Editions, Europe
T +44 207 318 4075
M +44 7824 994 784
rkennan@phillips.com
Anne Schneider-Wilson
Senior International Specialist, Editions
T +44 207 318 4042
M +44 7760 864 748
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Evening & Day Editions
London Auction 14-15 June 2022
177
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178
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206
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